Cornbread Ham Salad
This recipe for Southern cornbread ham salad is a perfect hearty supper salad, and is a great way to use up leftover ham!
Jump to:
- ❤️ Why we love this recipe
- 🤔 What is cornbread salad?
- 🍅 Ingredients you need
- 📝 Ingredient notes and substitutions
- 👩🏻🍳 How to make this recipe
- 🤔 Recipe FAQs
- 🥣 Equipment we used for this recipe
- 🍽️ What to serve with this recipe
- 😍 Other ham recipes we love!
- ⭐️ We want to know what you think!
- Cornbread Ham Salad
❤️ Why we love this recipe
Imagine this: soft fresh cornbread, broken into crumbles and tossed with diced ham, cherry tomatoes and yep, some fresh corn kernels, drizzled with just the right amount of a creamy ranch-style dressing.
We love this as a way to use up any leftover ham, although you can use a ham steak from the supermarket if you don’t have any ham on hand (say THAT three times fast!).
It’s the perfect all-in-one suppertime meal, although if you wanted to add a cup of cheddar cheese soup on the side we are 100% with you!
🤔 What is cornbread salad?
Traditional cornbread salad is a classic Southern side dish that features crumbled up cornbread tossed with beans, corn, sometimes tomatoes, sometimes bacon, and dressed with a ranch-stye dressing.
If you are looking for a great traditional cornbread salad recipe, this one from Spicy Southern Kitchen is a great one to try!
Over here in the Carolina Dream House, we are not the biggest fan of beans (hangs head) but I figured I could turn this into a main dish by swapping them out for, yep, some chopped ham.
I kept the tomatoes and corn and the creamy, dreamy dressing, but I left out the cheese and the bacon (I know, WHO AM I?) just to lighten things up a tiny bit.
As for the cornbread, I went to my old stand-by, that dependable box of Jiffy cornbread mix. If you have some extra time and want to make your own, you can’t go wrong with this homemade version of cornbread.
And if you are short on time, you go ahead and pick up some premade cornbread at your supermarket. It’s all going to be good once it ends up in this salad!
🍅 Ingredients you need
📝 Ingredient notes and substitutions
- Ham: This is of course a great recipe to use up any leftover ham you have, but you can also get a boneless ham steak in your supermarket…they are fully cooked. Look for them near the bacon.
- Cornbread: We tend to whip up an easy pan of boxed cornbread mix, but you can also buy pre-made cornbread or corn muffins and those will work just fine.
- Corn: Fresh corn kernels are the best (either raw or cooked for a few minutes in simmering water) but thawed frozen corn is also a-ok.
- Mayonnaise: Here comes my usual pitch for you to try making your own mayo! But of course the kind from the jar is absolutely fine.
See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities and nutritional information.
👩🏻🍳 How to make this recipe
STEP 1: Mix some mayonnaise, sour cream, chopped parsley, garlic powder, salt and pepper and milk together in a bowl. Give it a good whisk and set it aside.
STEP 2: If you are making homemade cornbread (and the kind in the box totally counts as homemade 😋) now is the time to mix it up, pop it in the oven to bake and then let it cool.
STEP 3: When your cornbread is cooled, crumble it up into bite-size pieces and put it in a mixing bowl.
STEP 4: Add some chopped cooked ham, halved cherry tomatoes and corn kernels to the bowl. Give it all a toss.
STEP 5: Now drizzle in that delightful dressing that you made. I like to drizzle some in, take a taste, and drizzle in some more until it tastes as dressed as I like it. You can put dressing in, but you can’t take it out!
STEP 6: And with that, all you need to do is divide it among bowls. You can top it with a pretty piece of parsley if you want to get fancy!
🤔 Recipe FAQs
You can! Leftover ham, a chopped ham steak, or you can ask at the deli counter for a 1 inch slice of ham. The only kind we don’t recommend is the thin-sliced kind you get for ham sandwiches.
Garlic powder is dried garlic cloves that have ground into a powder, and you can find it in the spice aisle. Make sure you don’t pick up garlic salt by mistake…that is garlic powder mixed with, yep, salt!
Almost yes! The cornbread can definitely be made even a couple of days ahead, and so can the dressing. Assemble the salad right before you serve it so it doesn’t get mushy.
Pop your question in the Comments section under the recipe card and I will answer pronto!
🥣 Equipment we used for this recipe
These are some of my favorite kitchen tools! These are Amazon affiliate links, which means I get a little something if you buy through my links at no extra cost to you. (Which helps pay for all that bacon I keep buying! 😄) And I only share things I use and love. I’m so grateful for your support!
- Measuring Cup: We love these angled cups that show the measurements on both the inside and outside of the cup.
- Measuring Spoons: These handy magnetic spoons are not on a ring, so you can just pick the one you need.
- Cutting Board: These sturdy, dishwasher-safe cutting boards come in all different sizes.
- Pyrex Mixing Bowls: These classic sturdy bowls come in all different sizes and are great for everything from mixing ingredients to being casual serving bowls.
🍽️ What to serve with this recipe
We like a soup with this salad if we are feeling extra hungry. Potato cream cheese soup, chicken noodle soup and pumpkin bacon soup are some of our faves.
And you definitely need dessert. We are thinking some chocolate chess pie!
😍 Other ham recipes we love!
⭐️ We want to know what you think!
If you try this recipe, we would love to hear how it came out for you! I’d be super grateful if you could leave a star rating (you pick how many stars! 🌟 ) and your thoughts in the Comments section below the recipe card.
Cornbread Ham Salad
This recipe for Southern cornbread ham salad is a perfect hearty supper salad, and is a great way to use up leftover ham!
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cooling Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 40 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
- Yield: 4 1x
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American Southern
Ingredients
For the dressing
- 1/4 cup mayonnaise
- 1/4 cup sour cream
- 2 teaspoons chopped fresh parsley
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/8 teaspoon pepper
- 3/4 cup milk
For the salad
- 1 package of cornbread mix (we love the 8.5 ounce box of Jiffy!) along with ingredients to make it, or four cups of crumbled cornbread
- 1 cup corn kernels (fresh or thawed)
- 1 cup halved cherry tomatoes
- 8 ounces ham, cut into bite sized pieces
Instructions
- Mix all dressing ingredients together and set aside.
- Bake cornbread according to package directions.
- Let the cornbread cool, and then crumble into bite sized pieces.
- Put the cornbread crumbles into a serving bowl and add the corn, tomatoes and ham and toss gently.
- Add the dressing in spoonfuls, tasting as you go, until it is dressed to your liking.
- Divide among plates and serve it up!
Notes
-
- Ham: This is of course a great recipe to use up any leftover ham you have, but you can also get a boneless ham steak in your supermarket…they are fully cooked. Look for them near the bacon.
-
- Cornbread: We tend to whip up an easy pan of boxed cornbread mix, but you can also buy pre-made cornbread or corn muffins and those will work just fine.
-
- Mayonnaise: Here comes my usual pitch for you to try making your own mayo! But of course the kind from the jar is absolutely fine.
- Corn: Fresh corn kernels are the best (either raw or cooked for a few minutes in simmering water) but thawed frozen corn is also a-ok.